Monthly Archives: July 2016

It’s been over six months since E joined our household. They have been six pretty delightful months, E is a pretty cool guy, but from his perspective they have been six pretty challenging months too.

As I’ve written about before, when E first came to us he had been trying to access services in rural Victoria, on the border of NSW. There was confusion about his referral and the original reason he came to stay with us was because he was hoping to have a face to face meeting with the psychiatrist rather than a skype visit, only to find his consult in Melbourne had been referred to Canberra….. little did we know it was the first of many challenges.

E was the kind of young man I would hold up as an example of how to do teen stuff right. He worked for the major fast food chain, did the management training, I told J this would mean he would be in employment soon. But six months on, countless job applications later and E has had a little cash in hand work and two job interviews. We worked on his tax returns and he had some cash in his account and when this year’s group certificate came in he did his tax himself, teaching a man to fish in action. He has been unable to register for government assistance, although I have finally talked him through the process of gently refusing the government line of “your parents will help” to keep standing up for himself and saying that they have not and it is unlikely they will.

There have been some significant wins though. Through a little transgender community grapevine action he connected with a well known GP who had recently moved to a new practice with the ability to take on new patients who referred him to a psychiatrist with extensive experience in the LGBTIQ community. E now has his “diagnosis” and two weeks ago had his first T shot. He has also started progressing through the recruitment process for an employer in a field in which he is interested in working. It’s a field where being 21 and with no experience is not seen as a barrier as he is viewed as young, enthusiastic and a model for a new generation of disability carers, if he is successful.

His smile is wider, that gorgeous enthusiasm that marked him as someone special when we first met is bubbling to the surface again. My heart couldn’t be gladder for him.

I’ll level with you, I have started this blog post about a hundred times. My feelings about Jeremy are so mixed each time I try and write it I get confused and my attempts to rationalise and unpick it gets sidetracked.

But here it is. Testosterone was not the answer. It has been a significant part of the answer but it has not been the solution in totality.

Since November Jeremy has been finished with school work. In the last week he finally got to Centrelink to register for Youth Allowance. In between he has floundered in a sea of anxiety, lack of direction and dysphoria. I’ve done my best to provide love and support but my patience and my bank balance are wearing thin.

For nearly three years we held onto a D date of Jeremy’s 18th birthday and his first injection of T. On reflection I had no idea what I expected from this injection.

He is becoming more masculine day by day and that is fricking awesome. His sideburns are epic and his goatee and sideburns are starting to meet on the sides of his face. His voice is deeper and there are even times when he is comfortable without wearing his binder.

But those mental health issues that sent us to a psychologist pre-transition are still there. They are exacerbated when he meets people in the general public that, despite beard and deep voice, somehow still misgender him. Dealing with Government organisations has a special challenge, and I am pleased that the Federal government employees in Newport Victoria are much more aware of gender diversity than their counterparts in Werribee.

So mothers and fathers – I thought the step of starting T would be a bigger solution than it was. It was a significant step but if I have learned anything from the last six months it’s that Jeremy has hopes and dreams about his physicality. There are dreams that I have offered to make a reality but he is still considering the implications for himself. He understands that he is in a position of privilege. It doesn’t alleviate the underlying feeling that he has that his journey is just starting. It doesn’t help when he feels that taking the first step isn’t accepted or understood.

It’s so unfair. I see his peers at Uni, getting part time jobs. He is so bright and engaging and that bundle of contrary actions that has bewitched me for nineteen years. His legacy was supposed to be bright and successful. The poor kid can’t even prove his identity because the forms are overwhelming and the questions daunting despite my support, love and credit card.

Time to put on my big girl panties and keep fighting the good fight. Because if the world won’t voluntarily step toward J, I will damn well make sure it does under duress.